Starting a Business

• Are You an Entrepreneur?


• How to Objectively Analyze Your Business Idea


• Protecting Your Business Idea

How to Objectively Analyze Your Business Idea

Before getting into the details of setting up a company, an aspiring entrepreneur should do a little reality testing. The two fundamental issues are:

Is this business idea right for you?
Is this business idea right for the marketplace?

In consideration of the first question, you must evaluate both your desire and your knowledge. Since starting and growing a business is tough work, an entrepreneur should love the business they launch. So, if you are leaving your present job to start your own business offering the same type of service or product, you need to ask yourself if you have enjoyed your work enough to want to continue in the very same industry.

Assuming you are excited about the idea you have, the next question becomes, do you know enough? Most successful start-ups are led by individuals who are already experienced in their industry, or a very closely related one. That knowledge gives them an edge in creating or supplying a product or service that is of better quality, lower cost, or enhanced in some other unique way.

Once you are confident that this particular business idea is right for you, you will need to evaluate whether the world is ready to patronize the business you create. Is there a sufficient market for your products or services? If so, who exactly are your buyers? How much will they buy?…How often?…and at what price?

Other necessary research is to learn what the competition is doing. How many companies are serving the market? What is their reputation? What are they charging? Where are they located?

You will also want to assess the five-year and ten-year outlook for your business. Is it a growing, mature, or declining industry? Even if your business idea is a great one, deciding to play in a market that is saturated or declining is probably unwise. Recognizing a rising market and jumping in without the required skills or capital is equally problematic.

All of this information will help you develop a competitive business strategy where you will define, in detail, what you are selling, whom you are selling it to, what you will charge, and most importantly, how you are going to differentiate yourself from other businesses.

Note to editors and publishers: M J Feld, President of Careers by Choice, Inc. hereby authorizes the reprinting of the content from Career Central. If you wish to do so, please provide the proper citation as follows: This content was provided by M J Feld, a master's level career counselor and certified professional resume writer. Additional career advice can be found on her website, www.careersbychoice.com.